South Shore Votech students earn spot in national competition

A car is pulled over to the side of the highway. The engine’s smoking. The hood is lifted and the driver is wrestling around with different tools and engine parts, trying to make the car start.

Mark Burridge

A car is pulled over to the side of the highway. The engine’s smoking. The hood is lifted and the driver is wrestling around with different tools and engine parts, trying to make the car start.

Well, that may be a nightmare scenario in dozens of movies – and in real life – but it’s a piece of cake for two kids from South Shore Vocational Technical High School.

Connor Ashburn of Hanover and Matt Montgomery of Hanson recently won the state championship at the AAA/Ford Auto Skills competition. The two are currently competing for the national title in Michigan.

“You start out by taking a test with AAA/Ford,” said Scott Kessell, the students’ teacher at South Shore Votech, in explaining the state process. “Out of 360 kids, they got a high enough score to get invited to the hands-on event.”

After the pack is narrowed by the written test, the students get to work on cars which have been tampered with so they won’t start. Each two-person team is given an identical car and told to fix it. The winner is chosen based upon a combination of fixing problems and speed of repair.

“You have to be able to drive the car,” he said. “They have to figure out how to get it running.”

Kessell wanted his students to be prepared, so he borrowed a car from a local car dealer. He went through and caused lots of problems with the test vehicle. That way, his practice car was much harder for Ashburn and Montgomery to fix than what they saw at the state finals.

Kessell said that, this year, there were only three cars that even finished and, of those, the highest score went to the South Shore Votech students.

And, just like that, Ashburn and Montgomery were state champions. The two students went to Michigan to compete in the nationals, which began June 9 and end today (June 12).

Last year, the school had the same honor and finished 16th out of 50 (the competition allows one entry per state).

Ashburn said the vehicle he and Montgomery are being asked to work on went from a Ford Focus in the state finals to a Ford Explorer in the nationals. The other main change is that, in the nationals, students are given tools to work with instead of being able to use their own tools.

Ashburn said that, not having access to their own tools, he and Montgomery are going to need to improvise.

“In a couple areas we’re going to have to ‘MacGyver’ it,” said Ashburn, accurately referencing the resourceful TV secret agent who left the airwaves before Ashburn was born.

Ashburn said he is nervous and feels pressure but, at the same time, is confident in his team’s ability.